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Technical

vcardDustin Graham

Managing Partner
Trumali Forum Building
Trumali Street
Stellenbosch 7600
About

Born in Johannesburg, Dustin Graham began his career in corporate finance in 2006 and has since concluded numerous high-profile transactions across a broad range of sectors. During his professional life, Dustin has worked in South Africa, London, New York and Sydney; this international experience adds depth to his understanding of diverse commercial forensic, fraud and M&A engagements.

Dustin’s role as a key driver in the development of his own group of companies means he brings a great deal of both technical and first-hand experience in all aspects of a corporate transaction. Dustin brings a calm, measured and structured approach to a transaction and can conceptualise creative and value-generating structures to best enable a corporate transaction to succeed.

success

In his tenure as Managing Partner of Benchmark International's South African offices, Dustin takes pride in leading his team of emergent young professionals and seeing them succeed. He strongly believes that his greatest gain is seeing the progress of his team and the way they approach the market with extreme expertise.

Empathic

Insightful

experience

Dustin has worked within both large corporations and mid-tier firms in first and third worlds, facilitating transactions of a global nature. He has serviced transactions on the buy-side and the sell-side and has been a client in an M&A deal.

Being an entrepreneur himself and having handled corporate transactions in many sectors, industries and jurisdictions, Dustin is well positioned to identify with clients and their individual circumstances. He considers himself to be a pathological problem-solver by nature and will completely integrate with client’s decision-making structures to ensure that he and the Benchmark International team deliver transaction outcomes that meet - and often exceed - client aspirations.

Education

BCom Honours (University of Natal); Chartered Accountant (SA)

Skills

Writing Effectively, Speaking Effectively, Listening Effectively, Business Strategy, Business Development, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting, Project Management, Business Analysis, Corporate Finance, Private Equity, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, Restructuring

Passion

Dustin is passionate about solving unsolvable problems; by virtue of an inherent ability to intuitively discern both real and imagined constraints, he is able to apply realistic solutions that cut through the heart of any given problem. The experience gained working in corporate finance and in fraud has added to Dustin’s ability to perceive outcomes that are not easy to identify upfront and to mitigate risks and solve problems before they become dealbreakers. 

Mr Graham is patient and service oriented, both attributes that allow him to engage with clients for the long-term in order to achieve objectives that cannot be rushed.

Diligent

Calm

Dustin’s personal and professional approach was experienced from our initial point of contact, the on-boarding and through to completion day. We benefitted from his advice, confidence and coolness under the pressure of final negotiations which made a huge difference to us as owners. Never were we made to feel that this was just another transaction. In addition, his network of professional service providers, legal and tax, were of great value to Clarotech. *
Colin Fair
Clarotech
* translated
Just to let you know that it has been one week short of a year that I have been going through this process and yet it has been a rewarding experience for me personally as well as for the company. I have worked at Avis Forklift my entire working career and as such have never been in the position to sell the company, or its shares, or any other company for that matter, and I had no idea how complicated the process could be. From Susan and I, many thanks to you Dustin for making this journey relatively smooth and more importantly, making it a successful transaction, as we couldn’t have done it without you. *
Kevin Bailey
Avis Forklift
* translated
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